Project Winnebago: an RV that is nearly as old as me

[Rickf1985]

Firewood inside......................... bugs in firewood........................... I will say no more.

[legomybago]

I think you are really creative.....and do a good job adapting to the old rv. I agree with Rick on firewood under the bed.....creepy crawlies come out at night! haha. Maybe build a rear hitch mounted rack for storage?

[perlgurl]

Firewood up here is seasoned and dried for a year prior to splitting.  As such I'm pretty sure it's fairly creepy crawly free, but even a bug or two isn't going to freak me out (I have 11 snakes, 2 ferrets and 3 cats and I'm not afraid of most anything with more than two legs). 

I do have a hitch mounted cargo rack, but I discovered during this trip that I need to have some welding done to my bumper before I put any weight on it since the bumper is pulling off the steel support causing the cargo rack to droop.  Not sure if you can tell that from this photo or not.....

One more thing to fix, sigh.

[Rickf1985]

Sigh.................. Seems wayyyyyyy back I outlined a way to fab up a sturdy support system for your rack.  W% W% W% i?? Off of the frame, no the bumper.

Ferrets and snakes, there is a combo. The hunter and the hunted. I have had both but not at the same time. Surprised to hear you have snakes in Alaska, Must be quite the electric bill keeping them warm in the cold months? I love Ferrets, they are a riot to watch and play with. Carpet and bed sharks.

[perlgurl]

Hey Rick,

Not sure I recall the " fab up a sturdy support system for your rack."  Can you remind me where you posted that? I still think I need to get the welding done since the bumper is pulling away from the metal and the screw/bolt that was there snapped and we can't get another one in it's place. 

There an no snakes in the wild in Alaska; all mine live in cages with proper heat and humidity for their specific species in a room on a different floor from the ferrets.  And my ferrets are "my quite playful puppies" and make me smile every day due to their antics

[perlgurl]

Also, we finally finished plumbing the new water system AND I finally have a hot water shower and a (new) shower tent for privacy! Huge thanks to my hubby Michael for all his amazing hard work to make this crazy idea of mine work.

Yehaw!!!

[Rickf1985]

We have talked about so many things I have no idea where it is now but what it comes down to short and sweet is two trailer hitch receivers, one mounted to each frame rail in some way shape or form. My favorite was to fabricate a bracket that would attach to the bumper bracket bolts in the frame and then weld the receivers to those brackets. That way they can be removed if need be. Then you put the other pieces of the steel, 2" outside diameter square tubing. under the rack and get them positioned so the rack will slide in and out of the pair mounted to the vehicle. Then weld them to the rack. This gives a double solid mounting point on both the vehicle and the rack so none of it is going anywhere. You can also mount a set of receivers under the front so the rack can be moved up there if you need to tow something. Now this is very general as to how I would do it, those ideas could change once I saw the vehicle but it would get done in the same general manner. This also takes the rear bumper out of the picture as far as supporting anything.

You were typing at the same time I was, WOW! Hubby has earned the right to a name now! Congratulations Michael!

I have to say that you two are the poster children for persistence. You have not let anything stop you from going out in your rig yet.

[perlgurl]

This is my bumper and the (frame rail?) part that the bumper seems to be separating from and therefore causing anything I put in the bumper hitch receiver to droop a bit.  For a couple of bikes it seems fine for one more trip but I don’t trust anything on the cargo rack (not sure if you can tell but the cargo rack is removed for this weekend’s trip); I’m running to the trailer store today to get an estimate and an appointment to get it fixed hopefully next week.  I know nothing about welcing so I’ll leave this up to someone who does know what they are doing.

My RV already is set up to tow my little trailer and I want to eventually put the motorcycles on the trailer and take a trip down to Valdez where we can camp and ride the motorcycles in the Valdez area since it is so very pretty down there; it is an eight hour drive to get to Valdez in a regular car (as compared to my slow-going RV) so I think we might break it up into camping in a few different places along the way. 

I also have this double hitch receiver thing that allows me to put both the cargo rack and bike carrier on hitch receiver on my car which I’ve done before successfully and though I would do the same on the RV, but I think I will likely just buy another of the bumper-mounted hitch receiver and mount it on the other side of the spare tire so that the cargo rack can be on one receiver and the bike rack on the other, distributing the weight a little better.  And I could still tow my trailer even with those things on there too since they ride higher than the trailer

[perlgurl]

You were typing at the same time I was, WOW! Hubby has earned the right to a name now! Congratulations Michael!

I have to say that you two are the poster children for persistence. You have not let anything stop you from going out in your rig yet.

Thanks! I've got ideas and many I can make happen myself, but Michael has really helped me make the water system work!  I bought most of the stuff and explained what I wanted but he worked it out and he made my shower hose extension form the water system work (first try was a bust, we used the wrong kind of tubing for the shower extension and so the water pump was not working correctly but now it has pressure rated tubing and works AMAZINGLY.

Can you believe he has not gone out with me in the RV yet? I get to take mini-vacations with my friends and do girls weekends.  I've asked but he just doesn't seem interested in going out with me.  WE never camped as a couple before so I didn't really expect him to.....he is more of the "homebody" and I like adventures and nature  

[Rickf1985]

You two are quite the pair. I'll bet you are the one that proposed too huh?  :)rotflmao I don't believe you don't know welding, seems you do everything else. That hitch extension you have on there adds a lot of leverage to that bumper mounted hitch which in turn is adding leverage to the bumper so you really need to get something attached to the frame and off the bumper. I will bet that bumper is only held on with 2 or 3 bolts on either side. It was made more for looks and holding the sewer hose than anything. Definitely not towing.

[perlgurl]

Just got the RV back from the shop. The valve gaskets have been replaced and in just the short drive home I noticed the engines sounded better.  I also got the bumper welded at the same place and the bike rack no longer lurches about or hangs funny. 


The friend who went with me takes beautiful photos (I'm still learning) and she has a public facing blog and she writes really well.  This is my friend's blog: http://susanstevenson.com/blog/2016/07/find-your-park-mine-is-denali/

I'm still working on my photos.  I might get them done before it's aurora season here in Alaska. Sigh.....

[Rickf1985]

Those are amazing pictures in her blog! And NOW we know what Joyce looks like. I can see why you get out there every chance you get, I would be just the opposite, I would only come in to get supplies and be gone again!

[perlgurl]

Holy adventure time!

I’ve been traveling and adventuring on and off for the past month and had to be towed twice! I’m still working on photos and blogs with details, but in short I drove 300 miles one way to go dip netting in Chitina, Alaska, got 100 miles part-way back and had to be towed home due to an exploded muffler and an alternator that fell apart. 

Got that fixed, went on a shorter 50 mile trip to Harding Lake each way with no problem, so I thought my RV would be fine to get me to Denali the following weekend.

I was wrong.

Got 83 miles into the approximate 120 mile trip and it died without warning.  Had to get towed home again, but my friend borrowed her parents RV the next morning so we could do three of the four days we had planned for our Denali trip. We will forever call this trip the “Triumph of Stubbornness over Circumstances.”

RV is back at home again now that it has a new voltage regulator.  I have no idea why they didn’t replace that when they did the alternator, but they said it was their fault for not doing it so the part and labor was done at no charge to me.

And thank the RV gods for AAA RV Premium insurance.  Thankfully all cost of my towing has been done under my insurance. 

[cj]

Way to go! Love that you guys persisted. Denali is definitely on our list, but we're having a hard enough time just trying to get to Colorado!!  I've got a 74 Brave D19 and I totally had the alternator and exploded muffler combo driving from Florida to Indiana. I feel your pain and admire your dedication. We're keeping track of our adventure (aka tour of North American garages) here: www.detachedandamused.com

[JimVol]

Thanks for sharing! I checked out your pics on your blog. That sure is some beautiful country you live in. I've never drove a Winniebago before and I appreciate the view from the drivers seat.

Thanks!

Jim!

[perlgurl]

Way to go! Love that you guys persisted. Denali is definitely on our list, but we're having a hard enough time just trying to get to Colorado!!  I've got a 74 Brave D19 and I totally had the alternator and exploded muffler combo driving from Florida to Indiana. I feel your pain and admire your dedication. We're keeping track of our adventure (aka tour of North American garages) here: www.detachedandamused.com

Holy moly CJ, just read the last two posts and it looks like your rv is putting you through some serious tests! I'll be following your blog for sure and hope you get it all sorted out.

[perlgurl]

Thanks for sharing! I checked out your pics on your blog. That sure is some beautiful country you live in. I've never drove a Winniebago before and I appreciate the view from the drivers seat.

Thanks!

Jim!

You might be looking at my friend's blog (http://susanstevenson.com/blog/2016/07/find-your-park-mine-is-denali/), but yes I will agree that I live in a gorgeous place for sure!

[perlgurl]

After my second break down I had the voltage regulator replaced and headed out once more for what will be the final RV trip to Denali this year.  The drive there was uneventful and I arrived in plenty time to set up camp and find the friends I was meeting to ride in for Road Lottery the following day.  I ran my furnace that night for the first time overnight and though I had it set down to 60F I stayed warm most of the night except for a couple brief times when I tossed and turned my way out of my sleeping bag.  Given it was forecast to be down to 29F overnight, I considered that a good night’s sleep since I prefer a cooler sleeping space and tend to run warm anyway. 

The next day we had a great day in the park with lots of animal sitings and that night I once again used the furnace, this time turned up to 65F.  It was even chiller and I really appreciated the extra few degrees!  I also found my hot water heater works and was able to do dishes with HOT water.  So awesome, I just wish I had figured that out earlier in the season. 

The only downfall I encountered was as I was leaving the park.  My RV started right up but it stopped halfway out of the camping loop.  I had slowed down for some massive ruts in the road and was approaching the deepest one so I paused and put the RV in neutral and IT DIED as soon as I tried to put it into drive.  I put it in park and tried starting it only to find my battery was slowly draining with each attempt.  And then I saw another vehicle behind me in the loop that I was blocking, so I grabbed my box wrench, jumped out and swapped the battery cables to put the house battery on the RV cable.  Got back in and it fired right up.  No problems driving home and I went to the store where I bought the battery that failed me to get it tested and they said it was fully charged. I watched to be sure!

I’m thinking I have some kind of electrical issue. 

Any ideas?

[Rickf1985]

A lot of the time a battery will crank much faster for the first 10-15 seconds as it burns of its surface charge and then settles into the regular charge. Is this maybe what you were hearing and the fact that someone was behind you you just did not want to strand everyone? Or was it REALLY slowing down as in DEAD battery? With all that you have been through I trust that you know the difference I am talking about. It is possible that you have a bad cable but I remember you replaced all of them. Starter could be going bad? As it heats up it starts to bind up or brushes start to lose contact. Bad connection at one end of a battery cable and as it heats up it will get worse. Those are just the things I can think of that would have the end result of a battery testing good after the fact.

[NiftyBetty]

Whoohee, Purligirl.  I've just read this whole thread.  I just bought a '75 Brave D19 that is still with the mechanic who is doing my initial inspection. I was surprised to find out that the original engine has been replaced.  Don't know what it was replaced with yet.   Your posts are scaring the crap out of me.  You sure have guts.   I can only keep my fingers crossed as my own adventure begins.  I hope my mechanic is half as knowledgeable as the folks on here.   He says the rig passed inspection with flying colors, but we ran into a burst copper pipe underneath the bathroom.  His dad, who is a contractor,  is replacing the plumbing with PEX (is that right?)  and he going to modify the bathroom a little bit by sawing off the narrow end of the sink ledge to make room for the raised toilet seat.  He is also laying new vinyl flooring in there and taking a crack at restoring the dinette area to convert into sleeping quarters.  I really liked that piano hinge idea you had for yours.   Once the plumbing is done, they can turn the water on again, and see what else does or doesn't work in that department.   Superficially at least, the tanks look good.  Can't wait to get out for my first overnighter, but I am beefing up my emergency fund.  I may need to start my own thread soon.  FYI, Denali is on my bucket list for a future trip.  Incredibly beautiful...  Anyway, I am hooked on this saga, so please keep posting.   Best of luck.